Espantalho Assassino

This film begins with two teenagers by the names of "Chad" (Keenan Tracey) and "Marcy" (Lanie McAuley) walking through a cornfield with the idea of spending some time together in a nearby barn while they wait for some schoolmates to meet up with them within an hour or so. Unfortunately, they realize to their horror that there is a monster lurking nearby and it kills the two of them in a most gruesome manner. The scene then shifts to six high school students reporting to a teacher named "Aaron Harris" (Robin Dunne) to atone for earlier misbehavior. To that effect, they have all been tasked to set up a display for the 100th Scarecrow Festival being nearby and as part of their punishment they are required to dismantle-and then reassemble in town--the scarecrow hanging in that same exact cornfield. What none of them realize is the horror that is waiting for them when they finally arrive. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was one of those movies that had plenty of action and CGI to please audiences who enjoy things of that nature. It does not, however, have enough character development or background material and the absence of these two ingredients gives this film a rather shallow aspect overall. Additionally, the longer the film lasted the more the action scenes tended to resemble each other to the point that it became quite tedious after a while. In any case, although I didn't consider this film to be terribly bad necessarily, the faults just mentioned were still much too apparent for me to rate it any higher than I have. Slightly below average.

I didn't expect much of this movie and I was right about it. There is not much to say about this movie. I thought the actors were mediocre at best. The story could have been good if the movie wasn't so predictable. You have the typical high school bad students on detention. They are all like 25 years old and you wonder why they can not find younger actors to play them. Then you get the typical scenes like the car that doesn't start anymore, the girl that falls over all the time trying to escape, the girl that wants to offer another girl as sacrifice so she can escape herself etc... The only good thing about the movie was the scarecrow itself. I thought he looked pretty good. It would have been better if they had given us some background story. I will forget everything about this movie in a week.

This was typical fare of something evil lurks and teenagers are on the menu. But with realistic gore and terror scenes, frightened actors and creepy settings, it's at least an enjoyable seasonal movie for Halloween, (it was aired on the Sy-Fy channel in October) and for TV movie horror fans alike. Mild enough to air on TV, it is fairly safe for younger teens and pre-teens, but engaging enough for the adults to watch, too. The monster was interesting yet vaguely familiar (think Jeepers Creepers) and yet kept me intrigued for the entirety of the story. Some twists and turns helped move the story along, despite the predictable characters and storyline. Overall, not bad. Not wonderful, but not bad.

Got to say it first: I enjoyed this Scarecrow look! At first I was thinking that it is indeed original, by far, afterwards, maybe a little dumb, but after hearing the explanation in the plot, of how it got that way, yeah, hands down to this concept! I approve!

So, Scarecrow 2013: a very nice and enjoyable movie, of course you must NOT expect too much, just some innocent fun, some almost scares, the most standard horror moves, "let's split off", "let's do that", "I can't believe it is real", and so on. But overall, better than those tryhard movies, that get lost in their own work. I approve to this one, for a cheesy cliché horror night!

Really, not much to say about it, either you love it, or not. But if you do lower your expectations, and just sit, watch, eat popcorn and make fun, you might be in for exactly what you have hoped for. Fun fun fun!

A group of well-deserving teens (who look way too old, but that's nothing new) spend some quality detention time running through corn and hiding in a haunted farmhouse & legendary site of several murders. The legend isn't apparently a myth, and they pay for their trespassing. It's been done before, and definitely better, but not a bad Sy-Fy offering. Nice and Halloween-y, starring that guy who I finally recognized from "Sanctuary" about halfway through.

Random thoughts - Very good to see Lacy Chabert again. Why doesn't she do more? Why is there a ripe field of corn planted on what's supposed to be long-deserted land?